Systematic and accurate time keeping for hourly employees is an essential for most businesses, providing time records for the preparation of payroll and, in addition, for control of time keeping abuses and monitoring of employee productivity. Traditionally, time records have been maintained on "time cards", which are typically used in connection with a mechanical time clock which stamps in and out times on the card. Payroll is then prepared with reference to the time records stamped on a card. Others have recognized, however, that maintaining these records in computer readable form, in addition to human readable form, would permit automization of payroll preparation.
As indicated, others have provided time keeping systems which allow integration of time keeping and payroll functions. These systems generally provide for computer readable time records which may be transferred or input to a computerized payroll system for the automatic preparation of payroll checks. There are, however, various drawbacks to those systems, and many other valuable functions which have not heretofore been implemented in a computerized time keeping system. Employee scheduling, employee productivity analysis and anti-abuse time keeping controls are just a few of these functions.